Mechanisms have long been available for resealing foodstuff containers of the bag variety ranging from the familiar rubber band to far more elaborate devices. With respect to such apparatus, it is conventional to seek to provide a means for circumscribing the neck of the bag and thereafter providing for a radially inward force to be exerted thereupon so as to close off the neck of the bag to promote sealing of the contents of the bag from the ambient and thus to promote freshness of the foodstuffs contained therein.
With respect to such closure members, in an effort to get an airtight seal, oftentimes extremely cumbersome mechanisms have been devised. For example, in the patent to Wightman, U.S. Pat. No. 588,848, a rather elaborate racheting circular device is provided for cinching up about the bag neck and includes an equally cumbersome spring-load release mechanism. In like manner, U.S. Pat. No. 637,068 to Bang provides for a circular closure member and a thread screw for tightening about the bag neck, again suffering from the drawback of its complexity, moving parts, and the like. Yet another example of this sealing approach about bag necks may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 663,540 to Hansen wherein again a circular member is provided for circumscribing the bag neck whereupon radially inward force is applied to close off the neck. The foregoing approaches, in addition to their complexity, suffer from a more serious drawback that frequently the ambient air is not entirely cut off from the interstices of the bag, thereby adversely affecting the subsequent freshness of the foodstuffs contained therein. Even with respect to alternate attempts to provide sealing force, such as the clothespin type clamp depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,791 to Groth, these approaches suffer from drawbacks such as requiring the entire width of the sealing surface of the bag to be sealed which is approximately the diameter of the aperture of the neck of the bag.
Additionally, in the prior art, numerous means have been provided for supporting foodstuff bags for containers. An example of this may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,291,810 to Rubenstein, which provides for a vertically aligned plurality of clip-like members for supporting a plurality of food bags in vertical alignment. However, no provision is made for resealing the bags. Moreover, even if the clips disclosed in food bag storage racks such as those depicted in the aforementioned patent to Rubenstein resealed the bags being supported thereby, once the thus-supported bags were removed from the support rack this resealing effect would be lost.
Accordingly, it was highly desirable to provide apparatus for resealing a food bag about its neck in a more improved fashion whereby it was more reliably and completely sealed from ambient air. Moreover, it was highly desirable to provide for such apparatus which could easily and With a very simple and inexpensive construction provide for repeated rapid resealing of such containers. Still further, it was desirable to provide for such a resealing apparatus wherein the device effecting the sealing could be employed to effect a supporting storage of one or more such foodstuff containers from a desired preselected location as, for example, from a storage rack mounted on a kitchen wall or the like. Still further, it was highly desirable to provide for such a sealing mechanism which could readily and easily be released and attached alternately to the storage rack whereby the container was sealed regardless of whether the food container was being disposed from the storage rack or at another location.